S09.07: Why Horror with Stephen Graham Jones and Becky Spratford

We’re talking about the mythmakers again this week with a chat about romance’s sister genre, horror! We’re joined by NEA fellow, Bram Stoker Award winner and bestselling horror writer Stephen Graham Jones, and librarian and horror expert Becky Spratford. We talk about Stephen’s lifelong love of horror, the way horror reflects the world, the rules of horror and how romance and horror are actually two sides of the same coin. Happy spooky season, book lovers. Fated States, our democratic phonebanking initiative continues this week—we’ll be calling Tennessee to get out the vote for Justin Pearson in the Tennessee 9th, and into Montana to get out the vote for Sam Forstag, candidate in the Montana 1st! There will be games, prizes and special guests! Learn more and register to phone bank with us at fatedmates.net/fatedstates. If you’d like to come over and talk about horror with us, please join us on the Fated Mates Discord, where you’ll find a few thousand other listeners who love talking about these books we love. Join the Fated Mates patreon to get access, and You also get one extra episode a month from us!! Horror Fiction, Film, and Television Mentioned in This Episode The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones Off the Reservation by Stephen Graham Jones Why I Love Horror by Becky Spratford Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones Flowers in the Attic by VC Andrews The Howling (1981) The Wolfen by Whitley Strieber Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) Heart Eyes (2025) I was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones The Indian Lake Trilogy by Stephen Graham Jones Widow’s Bay (2026) Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca Our Cut of Salt by Deena Helm Angel Down by Daniel Kraus The Grip of It by Jac Jemc Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Barker Scream (1996) Sinners (2025) Horror for Weenies by Emily C. Hughes The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Headlights by CJ Leede This Movie Doesn’t End the Way We Want by Hailey Piper Kiss, Slay, Replay by Rachel Harrison The Reformatory by Tananarive Due The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix Sponsors Avon Books, publishers of Emily Rath’s Devour Me, available in print, ebook and audiobook, at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, wherever you get your books, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited. Piper Rayne, author of Chasing Smoke, available in print, ebook, audiobook at Barnes & Noble, wherever you get your books, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited. Meghan Quinn, author of Christmas Staycation, available in print, ebook or audiobook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble or wherever you get your books. Penguin Young Readers & Berkley XO, publishers of Charlotte B. Plumb’s Reap & Sow, available now in print, ebook or audiobook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books. The Rest For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2026/10/19/horror-with-stephen-graham-jones-and If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates. Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough. If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now. 00:00 Why Horror? 10:10 Goosebumps or Babysitters Club 16:21 AD: CHASING SMOKE 18:51 Tropes & Horror Shorthand 21:16 The Emotionally Satisfying Ending 27:53 AD: REAP & SOW 29:34 A Worthwhile Fight 33:10 The Bully Dynamic 36:12 Comedy and Genre 42:14 AD: CHRISTMAS STAYCATION 44:15 The Stakes in Horror 50:57 AD: DEVOUR ME 54:45 The Literary Circus 59:51 Thee Dread vs. Terror Axis 1:03:14 Cozy andthe Difficulty of Levels 1:07:11 What do you Love? What are we Carrying? 1:21:01 Horror Recomendations 1:31:55 Wrapping Up 1:33:00 AD: CHASING SMOKE